a story as endless as the ocean . pjo / allie jackson

0.7 some minor explanation

0.7 Luke Gives Me Some Much Needed Context in a World Where I Need a Whole Encyclopedia to Understand Everything that is Going On

News of 'Allie Jackson' being in camp spread around quickly.

Luke led me all around camp and everywhere I went people would stop whatever they were doing and whisper among themselves. I wouldn't be able to hear most of what they said, but if I got lucky I'd catch a few bits and pieces.

Most ranged from, "Holy SHIT, it's Allie Jackson," to, "I heard she fought the Minotaur. How badass is that?!" The only person in the whole camp who seemed to have a problem with my arrival was Annabeth, who I had yet to see again.

Luke showed me a few places: the metal shop (where kids were forging their own swords), the arts-and-crafts room (where satyrs were sandblasting a giant marble statue of a goat-man), and the climbing wall, which actually consisted of two facing walls that shook violently, dropped boulders, sprayed lava, and clashed together if you didn't get to the top fast enough. He showed me the mess hall, which was an outdoor pavilion framed in white Grecian columns on a hill overlooking the sea. There were a dozen stone picnic tables. No roof. No walls.

I was going to ask where we ate when it rained, but then I thought better of it. I'd just stepped into a world where the Greek gods were real; I doubted they needed to worry about the 'little' things like the weather.

Then he took me to see the canoeing lake, the stables, the javelin range, the sing-along amphitheater, the archery range (which made me very excited and I'm sure Luke could tell), and the arena where Luke said they held sword and spear fights (this also made me excited, so much to the point where I didn't even wonder what kind of twisted summer camp had a sword and spear fighting arena). He took me to the armory, where he said all of the weapons and armor were held and that Chiron would get something that'd work for me later today.

Finally, he formally showed me the cabins. There were twelve of them, nestled in the woods by the lake. They were arranged in a U, with two at the base and five in a row on either side. And they were, without a doubt, the most bizarre collection of buildings I'd ever seen.

Except for the fact that each had a large brass number above the door (odds on the left side, evens on the right), they looked absolutely nothing alike. Number nine had smokestacks, like a tiny factory. Number four had tomato vines on the walls and a roof made out of real grass. Seven seemed to be made of solid gold, which gleamed so much in the sunlight it was almost impossible to look at. They all faced a common area about the size of a soccer field, dotted with Greek statues, fountains, flowerbeds, and a couple of basketball hoops.

In the center of the field was a huge stone-lined fire pit. Even though it was a warm afternoon, the hearth smoldered. A girl about nine years old was tending the flames, poking the coals with a stick. I smiled at her and made a mental note to talk to her by the end of the day, if she was still there.

The pair of cabins at the head of the field, numbers one and two, looked like his-and-hers mausoleums, big white marble boxes with heavy columns in front. Cabin one was the biggest and bulkiest of the twelve. Its polished bronze doors shimmered like a hologram, so that from different angles lightning bolts seemed to streak across them. Cabin two was more graceful somehow, with slimmer columns garlanded with pomegranates and flowers. The walls were carved with images of peacocks.

Cabin three wasn't high and mighty like cabin one, but long and low and solid. The outer walls were of rough graystone studded with pieces of seashell and coral, as if the slabs had been hewn straight from the bottom of the ocean floor. It reminded me of home, for some reason. I could've sworn I felt connected to it, but Luke dragged me towards the canoeing lake before I could think about it further.